Epiphany
by duhgenius
Summary: Everyone expected Draco to be sorted into Slytherin, so when he is placed in Hufflepuff instead his life in through into chaos. He must now decide who he is and not who he has been told he is, and with the help of his two best friends Blaise and Theo, and the pretty little bushy haired girl from Ravenclaw; find out what it means to be a Hufflepuff!


Disclaimer: All characters and Hogwarts belong to J.K. Rowling! Anything that might even look like it should be from the HP series belongs to her! I OWN NOTHING!

Being a Slytherin is considered to be the worst fate to the other houses at Hogwarts. Draco didn't think so though. He had always dreamed of being a Slytherin. His father was a Slytherin, his grandfather was a Slytherin, and so on. His family had been in the Slytherin house for generations, and he was determined to continue that line.

So when he was placed in the Hufflepuff house, he was furious. How dare they! How dare they let that stupid hat destroy his family lineage! He was Slytherin. It didn't matter what that hat told everyone; and his father would definitely be hearing about this. Draco could only hope it was from him instead of someone else.

He stepped off the stool, and with a sneer on his face, walked toward the table of cheering idiots who thought he was one of them. How could he get out of this? There must be some mistake. Maybe he could ask to be re-sorted. He sat beside a little Chinese boy who had been sorted before him and turned back towards the front. He watched as a bushy haired girl got sorted into Ravenclaw and sighed in boredom and anger. He was so aggravated. Wasn't there anyway to get out of this? Surely!

He looked at all the kids sitting around him. All Hufflepuffs, and all acting like Dumbledore was God. He turned to the little Asian boy next to him, who was probably a muggle born if the state of his robes told him anything, and was surprised to see the same look on his face that he was sure was on his face as well. The boy turned to him and suddenly spoke

"Why is everyone watching Mr. 'does-my-big-long-white-beard-make-me-look-wise' like he is God or something?"

Draco was taken aback by the directness of the kid's question. Yes, he had been thinking the same thing, but he had been taught his whole life not to revere those in authority over him unless they posed a threat to his life or could better his standing as the great pureblood wizard that he was. What gave this little mudblood boy the insight to see though the facade around him? So he turned to the boy and gave him a look of annoyance.

"Haven't you heard of Albus Dumbledore, "The Greatest Wizard of our Time"? He is nearly as famous as the conceited Harry Potter, the boys who lived." He said, as he pointed toward the messy hair celebrity sitting at the Slytherin table with the people who, Draco had grown up with, but whom had abandoned him for the horrible boy.

The muggle born boy looked even more confused at Draco's look of annoyance. "Why should I have? What did he do that was so great? He just looks like a crazy old man to me." The boy said with raised eyebrows.

Draco was once again astonished by this boy's directness. Weren't all Hufflepuffs supposed to be peaceful, brainwashable, idiots, because this boy was certainly not.

"What's your name?" He asked the boy

"Wayne."

"Well Wayne, that man is legended to have defeated many great dark wizards and to be the only person You-Know-Who was ever afraid of. Though I hardly believe that last one."

Wayne had an even more confused look on his face now. Seriously? What was so confusing about anything he just said?

"Who is You-Know-Who?"

Right a mudblood.

"I always forget how dumb you muggle-borns really are; until you open your mouth and ask questions like that. You-Know-Who was the greatest dark wizard that ever lived. So dark and evil that even simply saying his name could bring bad things or summon him, and that messy hair boy over there supposedly defeated him before he could even talk." He said pointing to the boy and sneering again.

Wayne looked over at the boy too. "I hardly believe that a baby could defeat the greatest dark wizard of all time." He said as he stood to follow the prefects to their common room.

"Yeah, me too" Draco said as he stood to head to the common room as well. As he stood he looked for his two best friends. Blaise Zabini, was one of his best friends since childhood, and Theo Nott, was the son of his father's best friend, so by default he was Draco's best friend as well. He sees Nott walking out with the rest of the Ravenclaws and talking to the bushy haired girl that was sorted after him, and he sees Zabini walking alone, while all the other Slytherin first years' fawn over Potter. He wasn't at all surprised about either of his friend's sortings. Though he knew Theo's father would be upset that his son was not a Slytherin, he also knew that Ravenclaw was a perfect fit for the bookish boy. Also if Blaise had been sorted in anything but Slytherin it would have been a mass mistake, there is no boy more cunning and ambitious than Blaise Zabini. What he didn't understand was how both of his friends could get their perfect fit, yet he had somehow been sorted into Hufflepuff.

As soon as they reached the common room the first years were led to their new dormitories. He, Wayne, and two other boys shared a bright yellow and black room with four beds and four desks. He walked over to the bed that his trunk and other belongings were laying by. He opened up his trunk and drew out the stationary that his mother had made sure he packed. It was fancy white parchment with a Malfoy crest at the top. Everything about it spoke of his pureblood linage and the fact that, as a Malfoy, he was born to be great. Right now though he felt like he had let his family down. He wasn't a Slytherin: like every Malfoy had been for ten generations.

He brought the paper and pen over to his desk and started to write his father, but he was stuck. How was he going to explain to the man that embodied everything he was supposed to be, that his own son had failed at the one thing that no Malfoy had failed at for two hundred years? His mother would be understanding he knew, but his father was not a kind man. His father was strict at the best of times and cruel at the worst. In the end, he decided to make it out as though it was just another letter home. He made it short and made sure to leave out any details that his father may take as an excuse for what had happened.

After he finished the letter, he got a prefect to direct him to the owlry, were he directed his own owl, Nuntuis, to take the letter to his father. He then walked back to his room, where he crawled into his bed and ignored the silent stares of his roommates.

Hermione was in heaven. Ever since she had found out she was a witch, she had dreamed of her first day at Hogwarts. She had read every book she could get her hands on about the magical world, and she had known even before she had gotten on the train that she would be sorted into Ravenclaw. Yet, when the hat had yelled Ravenclaw to the rest of the students sitting around the great hall, she couldn't help the huge smile that bloomed on her face.

She walked towards her table, hopping down the steps of the stage so she wouldn't fall down them and embarrass herself. She sat down at the head of the Ravenclaw table with the rest of the first years and smiled throughout the rest of the sorting.

After the sorting had finished, she sat and ate the food that magically appeared on the table, in a state of intellectual awe. When she found out the boy sitting next to her – whose name was Theo, she discovered – was raised in the wizard community, she couldn't help but ask questions. He appeared to find her curiosity amusing, but she didn't care. She wanted to know everything there was to know about being a witch.

"Do witches and wizards have weddings?"

"Why wouldn't they? I mean I am sure they are different from muggle weddings, but we are human we do have a lot of the same basic culture as muggles. I guess there is a difference because of the binding ceremony that is involved. From what I know about muggle weddings it is easy to get out of the marriage. While in wizard weddings they use a binding spell that binds to two people together." He replied thoughtfully. She was amazed at the efficiency of the wizarding world. She knew so many muggle families back home who had been split up by divorce and the wizards had effectively solved that social problem.

She continued to ask him questions though out the entire meal and into pudding. She found out everything she could about wizarding society and history. Most of the basics and things about Hogwarts she already knew from reading _Hogwarts: A History_ , but there were so many questions that the books she had access to at home could not tell her.

As soon as the man, who she assumed was Dumbledore from the descriptions and stories she had read about him, stood though she stopped talking to Theo and turned to listen.

"Welcome! Before we begin I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank You." At the end of his speech the banquet hall was filled with polite applause. Mostly from the Gryffindor table.

Hermione turned to Theo with a look of confusion. "Is that normal?"

Theo looked down at her, with the same face of utter confusion. "My dear, I surely hope not. I'm beginning to believe he is not all right in the head though."

Hermione nodded in agreement. She hardly believed that this man before her, who seemed a bit on mad side, was the same man whom she had read so many stories about.

She stood to follow the other first-years and the prefects to the Ravenclaw tower. As they walked out of the banquet hall and up the many flights of moving staircases, she continued to talk with Theo about Dumbledore and all the stories she had read about him. He shared stories that she hadn't read before and they continued to speculate the accuracy of their origin after seeing the man and the legend themselves. When they reached the Ravenclaw tower, all of the first years paused in front of the door. Suddenly a voice echoed throughout the room from the door.

"I am endless, but can be wasted. I can't be kept, but can be spent. I can't be owned, but can be used? What am I?"

All of the first years looked at each other in confusion. Hermione began thinking. I am endless but can be wasted. I can't be kept but can be spent. I can't be owned but can be used… What could the answer be? She was stumped and she wasn't often caught that way.

Suddenly a little blonde girl shouted 'Time! The answer is time! There is always going to be time, but we are always running out of it. We can't keep time but we can always spend it. The answer is time!" At the girls proclamation the door to the common room swung open.

After they had entered the common room and the prefects had allowed the first-years to explore for a bit and adjust to their new home for the next seven years, they were split of into groups of four and taken to their new dormitories. Hermione was paired with the girl who had answered the question at the door, a girl with the brightest red hair she had ever seen, and a quiet girl who didn't seem interested in talking to anyone or even making eye contact.

Their room was interesting and new to Hermione. It seemed to Hermione as though they had taken a library and turned it into a bedroom. All along the wall were bookshelves. As she walked up to the shelves she noticed that the books were all shifting constantly, as though they were organizing themselves. She felt someone walk up beside her and turned to see the red headed girl.

"Hi, I am Mandy. Fascinating isn't it. I read about it back home. They're based off the _Accio_ spell that we will learn in third year. Basically you simply think of the book you desire and it appears before you. The entire Ravenclaw tower is made up of them. Did you not notice them in the Common Room?"

Hermione turned to Mandy in amazement. Bookshelves that brought you any book you desire! Merlin!

"I'm Hermione, and no I didn't notice the shelves in the Common Room. I was still talking to Theo and was a bit distracted."

"Theo? Theo Nott? You mean to say he actually spoke to you willingly? I mean, you are a muggle-born, yes?"

"If you are asking if I come from a non-magical home. Then, yes. But what does that have to do with Theo?"

Mandy gave Hermione an odd look. "Well he is a pureblood of course, and the son of an Death Eater."

Hermione suddenly understood. She had read about this in one of her wizarding history books. There had been a war about eleven years ago and a great dark wizard had tried to take over Great Britain and the Ministry of Magic, but was killed by a child by the name of Harry Potter when he tried to kill Potter with an _Avava Kadavra_ , or the killing curse. She had met Harry on the train earlier that day and had seen the scar herself. Though the boy was a bit conceited, he did have the proof of the story.

"Maybe Theo isn't like his father. Maybe he doesn't believe in all the prejudice that his father fought for in the war."

The red head turned and gave Hermione a sympathetic look. "I truly doubt that he doesn't hold any prejudice against muggle-born. That particular group of purebloods are all bad crop. I am truly surprised he wasn't immediately sorted into Slytherin, since that is obviously where he belongs."

Mandy then grabbed a book off the shelf and walked toward her bed and began reading. Hermione was confused. If Theo was supposed to hate muggle born wizards and witches, than why had he been so kind to her and answered her questions? Was he trying to have a reason to make fun of her tomorrow? Or was he actually willing to be her friend? As she crawled into bed that night she was conflicted because she no longer knew what was truth and what was going to hurt her.

 **AUTHORS NOTES:**

 **This is my first Fanfic so if it sucks sorry! Also I am looking for someone to be Beta for me. If you have any experience as a Beta please contact me!**

 **Thanks,**

 **duhgenius**


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